Bush Pledges to Spend More on Black Colleges

WASHINGTON —  President Bush marked Black History Month Saturday with a promise to deliver big funding increases to black colleges “even in a time of recession and war.”

Bush, who won less than 10% of the black vote in the 2000 election but has seen his popularity soar since the Sept. 11 attacks, used his weekly radio address to urge Americans to “reflect on the contributions of African Americans.”

Bush sought to assure black leaders he would not renege on a promise to increase funding for historically black colleges and Latino-serving institutions by 30% by 2005.

He also touted the education reforms enacted last month to help narrow the achievement gap between low-income students and their wealthier counterparts. “We have come far, and we have a way yet to go,” Bush said.

“Today we are fighting for freedom in a new way and on new battlefields. And we continue to press for equal opportunity for every American here at home. We want every American to be educated up to his or her full potential,” Bush said.

According to some polls, Bush’s support from blacks more than doubled after the Sept. 11 attacks. Eager to hold on to these gains, the White House has stepped up its outreach to black leaders.

But Bush has come under fire from Democrats, including prominent black lawmakers, for proposing deep cuts in job training and other domestic programs in his fiscal 2003 budget in order to fund more tax cuts and the biggest military buildup in two decades. The 2003 fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), in the Democrats’ weekly radio address, said Congress will “stand shoulder to shoulder” with Bush to fight terrorism, but he blasted Bush’s proposed budget for bringing back deficits.

“Part of national security is economic security,” Conrad said. “The problem with the president’s budget is that his plan will return us to deficit spending--not just today, but for years to come.”

Comparing Bush’s budget to collapsed energy giant Enron Corp., Conrad accused Bush of making “the Enron mistake: underestimating our debt and endangering retirement benefits.”

Many Democrats charge that the $1.35-trillion, 10-year tax cut Bush pushed through Congress last year was too costly, imperiling the Social Security retirement program and the Medicare health care program for the elderly as the baby boom generation nears retirement.

The Bush administration defended its proposed cutbacks as part of an effort to shift federal resources away from what the White House deemed wasteful programs.